Falling into Confusion
by Hebi R
Summary: AU of Viskii's 'It Falls to the Young.' Warning: Contains spoilers up to Ch. 21. How is Hogwarts going to deal with the new and improved Marauders? And how will Lily Evans stay sane?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I'm okay with the fact that I don't own anyone named Potter, but if someone would like to give me Snape, Black, and/or Lupin, I'd be a very happy bunny.

This is an AU of Viskii's fantastic AU, "It Falls to the Young," which you should go read if you haven't already. This will make absolutely no sense otherwise. I post it with permission.

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Platform 9 ¾ was buzzing with chatter. Nearly every student from second year up had one thing on their minds: Peter Pettigrew, a member of the infamous Marauders, had been arrested by Aurors as a Death Eater, and escaped on route to Azkaban. He had even participated in the kidnapping of the other three Marauders! The most common questions were: "Do you think Potter, Black, and Lupin recovered?" "Will the Marauders be able to maintain their position as top pranks without their number four?" "Do you think the Marauders will try and replace him?" And, of course, "Why was Pettigrew a Marauder anyway? It's not like he did much." 

Lily Evans, the perpetual love interest of James Potter, stood with her friends, not saying much. It was so hard to believe. The Marauders had always seemed so close. How could Peter betray them? Also, out of all the Marauders, she would have pegged Peter as the last to turn. He always seemed so harmless.

Lily did not really like James Potter. He was a swaggering Pureblood prat, always playing pranks on people and acting like he owned the school. Which she did not like. No matter how cute he was. One the other hand…

Lily had arranged for the Daily Prophet to be delivered to her home. One day, the headlines had been "_HOGWARTS STUDENTS BETRAYED BY CLASSMATE_" and "_KIDNAPPED STUDENTS ESCAPE YOU-KNOW-WHO." _Lily had read the paper with growing dread. James and his friends had been captured by You-Know-Who. He had escaped, but she could not help but imagine how he must have suffered. The thought of the constantly laughing James she knew suffering through the horrible tortures YKW (A/N: Oh, come on. You know who that stands for. I refuse to type it out Merlin knows how many times. Why the wizarding world couldn't just call Voldemort 'Him' or some other really short title, I have no idea. Okay, done ranting now.) could devise.

Soon, the mass of students began to grow quiet. The Marauders had been sighted. Lily watched as James, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin walked towards the train. The crowd parted to let them pass. Finally, Sirius broke the silence. "Hey mates! It looks like Hogwarts has recognized our greatness. Lesser beings yield to our incomparable majesty!"

Many in the crowed started to laugh. The tension eased. It soon escalated again, however, when a sneering voice replied. "Actually, Black, I believe your odor is enough to make anyone wish to keep their distance."

'Great.' Lily thought. 'We haven't even boarded the train yet, and already Severus Snape is challenging the Marauders.' On the other hand, the odds were slightly more in his favor now. 'I hope Lupin breaks this up before they start casting hexes. Otherwise, I'm going to have to get involved. Meaning I may have to get between two posturing males who have no concern for innocent bystanders. Why did I want to be a prefect again?'

"Snape," James began, turning to face his Slytherin adversary, "I was wondering when you'd show up."

"I was held up by your mother." The Slytherin sneered back. "Apparently, you forgot something very important. She asked me to bring it to you."

From the expression on James's face, Lily could tell he knew he was going to regret what he was about to ask. "Alright Snape. What did I forget?"

Snape's smirk grew into a very evil grin. "Why, your Royal Princess Quidditch Gear, of course."

James turned bright red as Sirius and Remus burst out laughing. "James, my friend, you are never going to live this one down!" Sirius howled.

"Come on guys, it wasn't that funny!" James complained.

"Oh yes it was!" Sirius replied. "Was not!" "Was too." "Not." "Too." (A/N: and so on.)

Lily watched in disbelief as Remus put an arm around Snape's shoulders and lead him toward the train. "Come on, Severus. Let's grab a compartment while there's still time. We usually take the last one, but if you have a preference…" The boys climbed onto the train, and Lily couldn't hear them any longer.

The students still standing on the platform were suffering from extreme confusion, and Lily was no exception. 'There's no way I just saw what I though I saw. Sirius doesn't laugh when Snape makes fun of James, he hexes him. In fact, any time Snape does anything, Sirius hexes him. And Remus could not possibly have invited Snape to join them on the train. Things like that do not happen. This has to be some sort of elaborate prank. With Snape. Which, once again, makes no sense. Okay, Lily, think. Prefects have a meeting during the ride. You can corner Remus then, and get an explanation.'

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A/N: Hope you liked. Shall I go on? Please hit that pretty little button at the bottom of the screen and let me know. 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: JKR owns the Potterverse, and Viskii owns the…Skittlesverse?

A/N: I plan to take this story into a slightly different direction. Points will go to the first person who figures out what I have planned for poor Lily. (evil laughter)

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Prefect meetings were known for being long and boring. Although the students were unaware, there was a reason for this. Most teachers at Hogwarts had once been prefects, and it was hoped that the long, tiresome meeting that stretched on forever without getting anything done would prepare them for the most horrendous part of teaching: staff meetings. 

"…and so, along with a new patrol schedule, we are going to have to memorize Mr. Filch's banned items schedule so that we can make sure that anything inappropriate is confiscated as soon as possible." The Head girl finished. Many several prefects shook their companions awake. The Head Girl seemed not to notice as her peers wiped drool.

"Alright then," Frank Longbottom, the Head boy, suppressed a yawn as he looked at the last item on his list, "there's one more piece of business before we adjourn. Professor Dumbledore says that, due to some pretty persistent threats on his life, Severus Snape will no longer be living in the Slytherin dormitory. Instead, he's going to have his own room in Gryffindor Tower. Right near the common room. In fact, there's apparently a corridor leading right from his room to the Gryffindor common room. He'll be taking classes with Gryffindor. And, he'll also be sitting at the Gryffindor table at meals. This is ridiculous. Why didn't he just sort the guy into Gryffindor and be done with it?"

"Er, two reasons, I suppose." Remus replied. "First, there's the issue of house points. Second, well, if he slept in Gryffindor, I don't think that would decrease the threat to his life all that much. Most importantly, however, I think it would just be too much to ask him to cheer for Gryffindor at Quidditch games." No one noticed the odd smile on Remus's face during his last statement. 'Just wait!' he thought, trying to suppress laughter. Frank, also a Gryffindor, just laughed and the meeting was adjourned.

Lily moved towards her prey at once. For a guy who generally looked like he was at death's door, however, Remus could move extraordinarily quickly when he chose. Her counterpart was the first out the door, and by the time Lily made it into the corridor, Remus was out of sight.

'I have to talk to Remus.' She thought. 'Remus is sitting with James Potter. I have to avoid James Potter. This is a problem. '

'Why does James have to be such a prat? He has everything. He's rich, he's athletic, he's good at Transfiguration, he's popular, and he's really very nice to look at. Not that I'll ever actually say that. Ever. And he's a pureblood, with mostly pureblood friends. It's so frustrating. Everyone seems to love him, despite his inflated ego and habit of pulling pranks on just about everyone. Now even Snape is part of his little group.'

'That's it. I'm a prefect now. I'm not going to let them get away with everything. Not this year. James Potter, you are never going to know what hit you.'

Unaware of Lily's mental declaration, James Potter sat contentedly among his Marauder friends. The snack cart had come around, and Severus had just discovered that James had an unusual fondness for Pepper Imps. That actually explained quite a bit.

"I still can't get over the expressions on their faces when you and Remus started walking towards the train together. Jaws were dragging on the floor. You do realize what this means, don't you guys? We pranked the whole school! We actually did it! This has to be a historic first!" Sirius's yelled excitedly. His friends couldn't help but laugh. Well, Severus was snickering.

"Severus, as most junior Marauder, you do realize that you have an obligation to fulfill, right?" James asked, poker-faced.

"What?"

"Your mission, and you have to accept it, is to plan the first prank at Hogwarts. This prank must be carried out before the first week of classes has ended, and must, at the very least, leave one professor highly confused. Good luck man." James managed to keep his face straight with titanic effort as he patted Severus patronizingly on the shoulder, but soon, they were all laughing so hard it was surprising the compartment was not rattling.

"Severus," Remus began, "I just realized we didn't go over our schedules together. What electives do you have?"

"Care of Magical Creature, thanks to Dumbledore, and Ancient Runes. You?"

"Well, we're all in Care of Magical Creatures, as I'm sure you know, and I'm also taking Ancient Runes. James is taking Muggle Studies, and since Sirius's parents would have had heart attacks if he took Muggle Studies, poor Mr. Padfoot is stuck taking Divination."

"Mr. Mooney has absolutely no idea. This year, we're starting with tyromancy! Tyromancy!" Sirius replied with a moan.

"What on earth is tyromancy?"

Sirius slumped in his seat, head in his hands, clearly distraught. "Tyromancy," he said miserably, "is divination using cheese."

There was a pause, followed by yet another outburst of loud happy laughter.

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A/N: Thanks to Jecir and the anonymous reviewer. To all of those who reviewed, I send mental bars of Dagoba organic chai milk chocolate. Yum! Oh, and by the way, I did not make up tyromancy. It really is divination or magic using cheese. 


	3. The Run Around

Disclaimer: JKR owns the Potterverse, and Viskii owns the Skittlesverse.

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The Run-Around 

"That is it! I have had it with this feline!"

Lily Evans turned, startled, and saw Severus Snape holding Remus's cat Skittles by the scruff of the neck. His face was red with anger, and the cat displayed HIS frustration, constantly trying to turn and claw his captor's eyes out.

"Please, Severus, calm down! He's just a cat!" Lily pleaded, trying to save the poor creature.

Severus visibly forced a calmer expression onto his face. "Fine! Take the bloody thing before I defenestrate it. And keep it away from me!" With that, Severus stalked out of the tower. Lily feared for the life of anyone who encountered him, but she had other things to worry about. Such as...

"Shh. Shh. There there. It's alright, Skittles. He's gone. You're safe now. Everything is fine. Shh." Lily cuddled the cat to her chest, trying to soothe him. She did not even notice James enter the tower, nor the horrified expression on his face. With an unnaturally smug air, the cat began to purr as it nuzzled Lily affectionately.

After a rather choked noise, he managed some coherency. "Here Lily. Why don't you give that…cat to me? I'll go put him on Remus's bed." Without waiting for a response, James grabbed Skittles, and headed for the boys' dormitory. Lily could not understand why all the Marauders were in such moods that day. In her confusion, she failed to notice the door to the boys' dorm open again, apparently on its own, and quickly close again.

Inside, an invisibility cloak was slipped off one individual to reveal the form of Severus Snape. The cat also transformed into the same individual. Both Snapes collapsed onto the floor, laughing so hard tears streamed from their eyes. James fumed.

"Well," gasped the Snape formerly hidden by the cloak, "at least we drew enough attention. I doubt anyone will find it unusual that Snape and Skittles avoid one another after this."

"Hah," snorted the former cat, "only Gryffindors would fail to suspect Polyjuice. By the way, James…excellent taste. That Evans has incredibly soft skin and her scent-"

The Polyjuiced Remus had difficulty preventing James from strangling their fellow Marauder while laughing that hard.

Much later, it was Sirius, of all people, who pointed out the ultimate flaw in their prank. "Severus, confusing a prefect, especially Evans, is always brilliant, but your first prank was supposed to disturb at least one Proffessor."

"Sirius, Lily Evans was cuddling me to her chest. In friont of James."

"Scratch that, you passed with flying colors. Too bad we don't have pictures..."


End file.
